“Go, go, go!” Nash shoved her through the opening, not giving her time to pause.
She fell through the gap, blood rushing in her ears as she kept going, Nash right behind her.
* * *
Ivy’s thigh muscles were straining by the time they jumped into Nash’s SUV. The five minutes it had taken them to run back to their getaway vehicle had felt like an eternity in which she expected a bullet in the back. But none had come.
With slightly trembling fingers, she peeled the plas-film off her face before she grabbed her tablet and turned it on. She would be able to see the feeds on her phone, but this screen was bigger.
“What are you doing?” He pulled out of the parking spot, seemingly calm, though his knuckles gripped the wheel tight as he made a quick turn onto the main street.
“I’m going to see what they do, how they react.” She only had exterior cameras set up around the perimeter of the warehouse but she wanted to see if the brothers ran. And hopefully she’d be able to track them—as long as they didn’t ditch their vehicle after this.
“We’re going to talk about the insanity of what happened back there. But first…” With one hand, he pulled out his phone, punched in the code to open the screen before handing it to her. “You’re going to love me once you see this.”
For some reason his words sent a jolt of something through her. Her feelings for him were complicated. Or maybe not complicated. Maybe that was the problem. She knew exactly what she felt for him even if she didn’t want to admit the words out loud. Not even to herself. Because if she admitted things, even in her own mind— Nope. It would just make things harder. It was much easier to keep her feelings deep inside and try her best to ignore them.
Suuuuper healthy coping. About as healthy as hanging out with him when she was in town, texting with him all the time. Yep, it really helped keep her feelings locked down. She nearly rolled her eyes at herself. “What am I looking at?”
“I downloaded something on Luka’s phone.” And Nash looked completely pleased with himself. “Used his fingerprint to open it, then added the app. We’ll be able to hear what he’s saying and see where he’s going.”
She blinked as she looked away from her tablet and stared at his phone. This was a whole lot better than the tracker on their SUV. People never let go of their phones for long. “Are you serious?”
“Eventually he might figure it out because the tracking part will drain the battery, or they might have seen what we did on a camera, but yep. You’ve got ears on him.”
“I could kiss you right now,” she blurted then glanced at her tablet because she felt her cheeks warm up. What was wrong with her?
He cleared his throat as he snagged the phone from her and pressed a button on the app. Suddenly noise filtered through the speakers in the SUV as he handed it back to her. “I want to get out of this direct area,” Nash said. “We should be able to tail them with this, but I don’t like being so close to them right now.”
Agreeing with him, she nodded.
“How stupid could you be!” a male voice shouted over the line. The sound was slightly tinny, as if they were talking in a tunnel, but it worked. So they must not know what Nash did.
She shifted in her seat excitedly as Nash took another turn. Maybe they would get something useful today after all.
“It’s not like I let them in.” That was Luka. She recognized his voice.
“It’s Delilah. She’s got you all distracted,” the man growled.
“She has nothing to do with this. She tried to help!”
“Whatever. Just pack your shit now.” Grumbling and nonsensical words followed and then she heard the sound of boots stomping away.
Then there was more rustling and other noises she couldn’t quite define. It almost sounded like something rolling across a concrete floor.
Then doors began slamming one after the other. At the sound of an engine roaring to life, she realized they were likely in a vehicle. The SUV hopefully.
“How’s your jaw?” Luka murmured.
“I’m fine. Bitch surprised me,” Delilah muttered before making a hissing sound. “It’s going to be sore for a while.”
“That was an impressive right hook,” Nash commented quietly as he pulled up to a red light.
Ivy glanced around at their surroundings. Everything was so normal. Just any other day in Miami. A home goods store had a parking lot full of cars, and next to it, a fabric store parking lot was just as busy. Prettily waving palm trees lined the sidewalk along the shopping center, green and proud.
“I can thank Sebastian for that one,” Ivy said. “He taught me how to punch when I was nine. Here, make a left. It looks like they’re heading north.”
“Gregory is so pissed. First you forgot to set the alarm when we left, then you two were too damn busy screwing to keep an eye on things.” The same male voice who’d originally berated Luka was back. “If he hadn’t spotted those two on his cameras—”
“Are we going to talk about the fact that Gregory has cameras in his warehouse?” Luka again, his voice incredulous.
“Of course he has cameras, dumbass. He was letting us stay there for a small commission and in exchange for watching his stuff. And yes, he saw you two fucking.” Disgust laced the man’s voice. “He’s headed back into town. And now thanks to you, I’ve burned my bridge with him. I’ll never be able to ask him for a favor again.”
There was a beat of silence. Then, “Do you know who those people were?” Delilah asked.
“Gregory had a problem getting a clear image of their faces apparently. I haven’t seen the video feeds, but he says the images are distorted.”
“Well, they’re clearly not cops or Feds,” Luka muttered. “They probably had nothing to do with us. They were probably looking to rip Gregory off. He owes a bunch of people.”
“How about you don’t do any thinking?” the other male snapped. From the way he was talking, basically taking charge, her money was on this being Noah, the oldest. At forty-five, he’d been running jobs for at least twenty-five years and he was the leader of their crew. He liked fast boats and gambling in France and Monaco.
“Guys, let’s all calm down,” a third male said, and she was going to guess that he was the middle brother, Miles. At forty-three, he had a penchant for expensive tequilas and even more expensive escorts. “We’ve got the merchandise and everything is still a go.”
They had the merchandise? Code for the painting. At least they hadn’t sold it yet, and she hoped the auction was still on. It sounded like it, but the clock was ticking. From what she’d gathered, they lived big, spending their stolen gains on booze, women, boats and parties until they ran out of money. Easy to do when you didn’t earn it yourself.
“We need to go to ground. I’m not losing out on this job. I’m not going to let someone rip us off,” Luka said.
The oldest was apparently ignoring him, because he said, “Are we being followed?”
There was a soft murmur from the other brother. “I don’t think so, but I’m still going to drive around for a while.”
“We need to stop and check for a tracker.”